http://www.dawn.com/2011/01/13/gates-gets-tour-of-chinese-nuclear-base.html
Gates gets tour of Chinese nuclear base AP Yesterday MUTIANYU: China invited US Defense Secretary Robert Gates inside its nuclear warfare headquarters on Wednesday, giving him a rare glimpse into control of weapons that could one day be launched at the United States. Both the US and China have long-range missiles that could reach the other's shores. Both nations say they have no intention of using the weapons that way. "There was a discussion of nuclear strategy and their overall approach to conflict," including China's policy of not using nuclear weapons pre-emptively, Gates told reporters afterward. "It was a pretty wide-ranging conversation, pretty open," Gates said. He spoke atop China's Great Wall, where he paid a brief tourist visit before leaving the country. Gates' assignment during four days in China was to patch up damaged ties between the two militaries. He claimed success Wednesday, saying military leaders he met support broader engagement. "I think the discussions were very productive and set the stage for taking the military-to-military relationship to the next level," he said. The weapons command center in the Beijing suburb of Qinqhe is a site a few US officials have visited previously, including former US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in 2005, so Gates was unlikely to learn much about China's capabilities that was not already known. Chinese military officials also routinely scrub all traces of truly sensitive materials before allowing Westerners inside such places, as Gates seemed to acknowledge Tuesday. Reporters were barred from the site. Still, Gates' visit to the base was sought by the United States to balance the 2009 visit of a senior Chinese general to US Strategic Command. The Chinese base maintains control over nuclear and conventional strategic missile forces, although US analysts have said wartime operations probably would be conducted from another, more secretive site. China has short-, medium-, long-, and intercontinental-range ballistic missiles. China maintains a nuclear arsenal of about 200 warheads deliverable by land- and submarine-based missiles as well as bomber aircraft, according to the Federation of American Scientists. China last week reaffirmed its commitment not to use nuclear weapons pre-emptively. Foreign observers have suggested China might abandon its no first-use policy in the event of a major crisis over Taiwan or other crucial concerns, although ranking Chinese military officers and government-backed scholars repeatedly have denied such speculation. Gates' four-day trip to China was dominated by the effort to repair strained military ties ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's state visit to Washington next week [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/proletar/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
